It seems like another thing the dishes he likes have in common is salt. Which makes a lot of sense if he grew up eating a lot of canned veg and packaged stuff.

It's kinda gross to think about, but maybe you could increase the salt in your dishes and see if he likes them more? And then if that works, slowly decrease the amount of salt in your average meal til it's back to a nice healthy level. That way, his tastes have time to adjust.

It always seems to me that everyone likes Italian so if I can't please someone that is the direction I go. I know you said he doesn't like seitan but has he tried the seitan sausages? Everyone seems to really like those too. And soy curls seem friendly too.

you guys need to move further west so i can get in on this mealshare thing.

sorry, i don't have any recommendations for how to help brett try new things. although, in his defense, i make these gross-sounding chili/grape jelly meatballs that are totally awesome, but made out of what is seemingly the grossest combination of two things in the world...

_________________I'm one of those vegans that cuts corners when it comes to things like breastfeeding and stabbing you in the face~PranjalThat story would be adorable if it didn't end with herpes. ~Mo

I was actually thinking about how awesome a meal share would be last week, then I remembered that I know only one person who would be willing to do an all-vegan one and I got bummed out.

It sounds like your partner eats more than Brian, so I won't recommend my method which is: give up and eat oatmeal for dinner.

_________________"The Tree is His Penis"

The tree is his penis // it's very exciting // when held up to his mouth // the lights are all lighting // his eyes start a-bulging // in unbridled glee // the tree is his penis // its beauty, effulgent -amandabear

It seems like another thing the dishes he likes have in common is salt. Which makes a lot of sense if he grew up eating a lot of canned veg and packaged stuff.

It's kinda gross to think about, but maybe you could increase the salt in your dishes and see if he likes them more? And then if that works, slowly decrease the amount of salt in your average meal til it's back to a nice healthy level. That way, his tastes have time to adjust.

you guys need to move further west so i can get in on this mealshare thing.

Or north. Like, next door to me.

I know how frustrating it is to spend time making a carefully chosen, well-prepared, balanced meal, only to have someone turn up their nose at it. I was a picky kid until I went veg in my teens, and in our house it's my youngest son who's unfeedable (I'm fortunate in that Robert is an enthusiastic consumer of everything I cook), and for the most part I just keep offering him stuff and hope that he'll outgrow it in the same way that I did. Having said that, there are a few things he likes: chickpea cutlets, the tempeh "crab" cakes from VB, spaghetti w/marinara and TJ's meatballs, some quasi-Chinese things like fried rice or peanutty noodles. Obviously, I can't make those things 5 nights a week, but I find that if I make something he will eat every now and again, the occasions when he'd rather make a sandwich or microwave something don't bother me quite so much. Good luck, and let me know what's successful!

What does he eat when you go out to vegan restaurants? You could try making some of those dishes at home.

Peter use to be really picky but i've broken him down over the years so just keep trying.

also the chili/grapejelly meatballs...my friend made that for a potluck once (with real meat) and they smelled delicious! I've alway's wanted to veganize it.

Since mealgroup started we don't eat out much. We really only ever go to Rutherford Pancake House for Daiyasidillas! Its a good idea though - he likes falafel (but only from Beyond Pita), butcha at Mesob (nothing spicy), Indian (kormas, jalfrezi, and other mild creamy curries). He doesn't really like Veggie Heaven. He also likes Chipotle and Taco Bell bean burritos. Its funny, but every now and then he eats tofu or seitan or tempeh when it gets on his plate without him realizing, but it doesn't make him more willing to try it again in the future.

_________________My oven is bigger on the inside, and it produces lots of wibbly wobbly, cake wakey... stuff. - The PoopieB.

Last edited by Tofulish on Thu Oct 21, 2010 2:48 pm, edited 1 time in total.

It sounds like he and I have similar food backgrounds and palates, hahaha. (If they weren't made of disgustingness and guaranteed to kill me, I would happily eat nothing but chicken pot pie and boxed mac and cheese for the rest of my life.)

So branching out from the "cheez" thing, what about some creamy/savory/gravy type dishes? Pot pie with a creamy gravy (I make the All American one from Vcon, often do chickpeas/blackeyes instead of seitan) or a veganized tuna noodle casserole type thing might appeal.

You can put veggies in itdo whole wheat pasta for the noodle onewheat dough/top crust only to healthify pot pie I often just do herbed breadcrumbs on top, because I am lazy and it's the filling I'm after, not the dough!

It's not cheese/daiya, but the creamy sauce hits that same craving/want for me.

I grew up in a house where almost every meal, in addition to meat, had or contained a sauce made from one to several varieties of Cambell's cream of something soup. If you think this sounds similar to his deal I will happily give you a list of Stuff My Mom Cooks and helpful veganizing suggestions!

_________________...I am an opinionated prick not a problem solver. -matwinser

Now I remember why I try to keep a continent between me and New Jersey at all times. -torque

I guess it's true, you do just have to be aware that you have different tastes in food and I know what it's like as I disliked so many different things when I was a child (mostly meat, fish, cooked spinach, split pea mashed potato) but now that I'm vegan I eat so many different types of food and there's not a lot I don't like.

People tell me they see a huge difference in my bf and the food he eats since he's been with me so I guess patience is the key, perhaps in time they'll continue to try new things and might start expanding the flavours they like.

I just read that link to selective eating on wiki (previous page) and it does sound like him and it's definitely something he's had since he was a kid, I know he hates a lot of the foods he was forced to eat as a child (like pasta) and has said his Mum would say there was no chillli in something only for him to find that there was.

I know it's hurtful to have your cooking rejected--I'd love to feed my omni husband, but he refuses 99% of the food I make. About the only thing he will eat that I make is roasted veggies (depending on the veggies).

I really like the Tumblr idea! Most people are visually-oriented, so having pics of the finished dish would be very helpful in getting him to make a choice (I would think).

You might want to look at some of Nava Atlas' 5-ingredient cookbooks. They are simple and the flavors are familiar.

_________________A whole lot of access and privilege goes into being sanctimonious pricks J-DubDessert is currently a big bowl of sanctimonious, passive aggressive vegan enduced boak. FezzaYou people are way less funny than Pandacookie. Sucks to be you.-interrobang?!

we just finished cooking and eating and he LOVED it. (urban vegan cookbook...orriechette con broccoli, but with some other adorable little pasta shape.) and cooking together was a really fun experience! i highly recommend.

_________________But if one were to tickle Pluto, I suspect that it might very quietly laugh. - pandacookie

55k usd is like 4 cad or whatever equivalent in beavers you use on the island - joshua

Fortunately, my Brett likes my cooking (even more fortunate due to his omni-ism. i imagine there'd be more conflict around here if he didn't like it and wanted meat). However, there are some things I can make that really make him deliriously happy (other than desserts). These are: any sort of white or cheese style sauce on anything; things in dough (pie crust, puff pastry, pizza dough); things with dumplings; stuff with gravy. He likes fake meats and seitan and tofu too. I now have to buy 1.5 lbs of tofu if I expect to get a few pieces out of a batch of baked tofu. Oh, and he's nuts for barbecue sauce and mashed potatoes and wasabi.

I don't have many additional suggestions to offer but wanted to add my total sympathy to this post. My boyfriend is actually very flexible and willing to try new things by comparison, but I know how frustrating it is for me when he doesn't like or doesn't eat something I've made. For example, he hates tempeh, no matter how it is prepared, and while he likes store bought seitan (sausages, slices, roasts, all kinds) I cannot prepare homemade seitan in a way that he finds palatable. I must have made 10 different batches with different seasonings; cutlets, sausages, more heavily seasoned, simpler, different prep methods, and he always says they have a strange aftertaste. I've tried switching the brand of gluten I use and it all still tastes funny to him. Compared to your problem this is very minor, I know. But I love tempeh and homemade seitan is so much less expensive! I don't like being limited to just tofu and beans for protein.

Sometimes he'll say he likes things and then instead of eating leftovers (and he has no problem with leftovers in general) he'll just eat cereal or bread for days and let the leftovers go bad. Recently I went on a work trip and went to all kinds of trouble preparing meals ahead for him and came home to find he hadn't touched any of it and it all had to be thrown out. It was stuff he said he liked too.

I tend to plan ahead for the week and cook on my days off. I hate throwing out things that I spent lots of time and energy making and he and I not being on the same page often leads to this. I too often end up finding something I was planning on taking to work for lunch is all gone because I didn't expect him to like it, or that I made enough for both of us and now I have to throw half of it away because he won't touch it.

I grew up in a house where almost every meal, in addition to meat, had or contained a sauce made from one to several varieties of Campbell's cream of something soup. If you think this sounds similar to his deal I will happily give you a list of Stuff My Mom Cooks and helpful veganizing suggestions!

esme, I would make the chili/grapejelly meatballs on your recommendation! Also, move out east - its closer to RI anyway :) And Rutherford Pancake House.

it's so easy. a jar of chili sauce (like, the kind you make cocktail sauce out of - not hot sauce or anything like that), a jar of grape jelly - melt the two down into a pot. it takes a few minutes and looks sort of gross when it's melting, but i promise it will look really good once everything is all blended together. add meatballs. i like the trader joe's ones.the end.

one regular sized jar of chili sauce (probably around 15oz?) and one regular sized jar of grape jelly should be enough to cover one bag of the TJs balls.

i'll serve this with something like mashed potatoes and gravy and green beans.

now i'm hungry...

_________________I'm one of those vegans that cuts corners when it comes to things like breastfeeding and stabbing you in the face~PranjalThat story would be adorable if it didn't end with herpes. ~Mo

I used to be like this until I'd been vegan for a while. Mike used to be like this until he'd been vegan for a while. We'd both grown up eating things from boxes and cans, hardly ever having freshly prepared food. I think it just takes a while for people to get used to not eating meat and processed crepe. Mike still doesn't like certain things that I love (now), but he seems to get over some of his food prejudice a little bit at a time. Hopefully Brett will come around in time.

_________________A pie eating contest is a battle with no losers. - amandabear

I grew up in a house where almost every meal, in addition to meat, had or contained a sauce made from one to several varieties of Campbell's cream of something soup. If you think this sounds similar to his deal I will happily give you a list of Stuff My Mom Cooks and helpful veganizing suggestions!